SXSW Report: Part One

Well it’s my first day of SXSW and I have been rocking it until the handles come off. I don’t mean that figuratively either—midway through the day the handlebars of the bike that I borrowed came off… while I was riding it down 6th St. Luckily no one was hurt and a shirtless bike taxi dude loaned me a wrench to fix it. And that was just one of the many “thrilling” adventures I encountered.

(Harlem @ The Peacock)

I started the day out with breakfast at Chicos, picked for it’s proximity to the Gorilla vs. Booze day party as well as rumors of a legendary food called “Las Migas.” Las Migas ended up being eggs, re-fried beans, and salsa—I am still not sure where the legend comes from. Moving on over to the Gorilla vs. Booze party at the Peacock Lounge, we made it in time to see local garage band Harlem: a three piece with the biggest kick drum I have ever seen. Harlem started off the set with a request to the audience: “I know it’s like one o’clock but we are going to need you guys to go crazy.” The audience sort of went a little crazy but nothing compared to the band. I am writing this many hours after the fact but I still remember the guys rocking it pretty hard.

(Girls @ The Peacock)

Right around the time Harlem finished the party’s supply of free Red Stripe ran out. It also became unbearably hot and crowded inside the unventilated Peacock. Luckily the misery was alleviated somewhat by Here We Go Magic, one of the best bands I ended up seeing all day. HWGM were sort of like a Yeasayer that takes itself a little less seriously, and they were a great deal of fun to hear. I also discovered that a cold Lone Star beer takes the edge off of a heat wave nicely. Next on the bill were Girls, one of the party’s bands I was most looking forward to. I am not sure if it was the Peacock’s sound or the band though, but for some reason Girls just didn’t quite move the earth for me. Much of their set was just a wall of dense guitar distortion, over which I kind of felt like I was supposed to be able to hear something else but never quite could. The Golden Filter took the stage next, playing some dancy Glass Candy-type music. I could only stay for a few songs but one of them managed to get into my head and proceed to drive me insane the rest of the morning. I can’t actually remember it now and hesitate to investigate since I don’t really want it playing on loop in my brain again.

(Micachu and the Shapes @ Malverde)

Leaving the G vs. B party I rushed over to Malverde to catch Micachu and the Shapes, an experimental English band I had written a review of recently. Micachu played an open air show, with downtown Austin at their backs under a blue sky. Though I was looking forward to seeing some of the band’s rumored self-built instruments, they didn’t seem to have brought them. They still managed to do a good job with the material from their recent release, Jewellery.

(Elvis Perkins in Dearland @ Auditorium Lakes Stage)

Another bike ride across town (ducking some weird-ass hipster evangelicals) and I found myself at the Auditorium Lakes Stage, a sort of mini-festival within the festival. Auditorium Lakes consisted of a large outdoor bandshell, surrounded by crappy beer vendors and the proprietors of mysterious energy beverages. I had come to see Elvis Perkins in Dearland, but was almost frightened away by all the high school kids and the constant Dave Matthews Band blaring over the speakers. Luckily Perkins and his band took the stage and delivered a raucous, upbeat set that was quite a bit happier than Perkins usually sounds on record. During parts of the set another band came onstage to add to the brass section, banjo, and percussion; though most of the time they didn’t seem to be plugged in so you couldn’t hear what they were actually doing. After Perkins’ set I had to hightail it out to escape the Cold War Kids fans that began pouring into the area like locusts to see said band play next on the bill.

(Elvis Perkins in Dearland @ Auditorium Lakes Stage)

The night started to get a little dicey after that and I started hitting dead ends. Strike One: The Central Presbyterian Church where Grizzly Bear had something like eight different lines out the door, and a couple of frantic volunteers struggling to make everyone go to their proper place. After standing in what I thought was the wristband line, only to see the wristband line start moving about five feet to my right, I gave up and moved on. Strike Two: One of my personal heroes Pete Rock was supposed to play a showcase out in the sticks. When I showed up, volunteers assured me that Rock wasn’t coming, and that they had no idea why. Strike Three: My festival companion and keeper of the holy iPhone, Nate, couldn’t get his iPhone to connect to the internet to figure out the schedule. Turns out a bunch of iPhone users had the same problem. Perhaps when you put too many iPods together in one place they won’t work? Or perhaps it had something to do with the overabundance of skinny jeans?

(Vivian Girls @ Aces Lounge)

(Vivian Girls @ Aces Lounge)

(Vivian Girls @ Aces Lounge)

We soon got back on track though, catching Vivian Girls and Rosie and the Goldbug at the Aces Lounge. Rosie I had never heard of previously, but the British keyboardist (who wore her underwear over her tights) put on a high energy, dance-tastic set. There was even a girl in a gold spandex suit who danced through the crowd claiming to be “the goldbug.” Though the goldbug girl freaked my shit out a little, I was soon soothed by Vivian Girls and their mild-mannered sugar-and-spice pop music. Except the opposite. Vivian Girls’ devil may care garage frenzy had the same effect as Girls’ earlier set: all noise without much else keeping it from just sounding like everyone trying to play as loud as they could. “Tell the World” was a noticeable exception. I was also looking forward to hearing “Where Do You Run To,” but even when the audience cried out requests for it the band flat out refused. For a band who had to play some of their songs more than once in order to fill out their entire set, it seems a little early for the Vivian Girls to disown a song.

(Rosie and the Goldbug @ Aces Lounge)

(Rosie and the Goldbug @ Aces Lounge)

(Fight Bite @ the Rusty Spur)

(Fight Bite @ the Rusty Spur)

(Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele @ the Rusty Spur)

(Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele @ the Rusty Spur)

(Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele @ the Rusty Spur)

Later I headed to the Rusty Spur to catch the poor man’s Beach House, Fight Bite. I caught the real Beach house shortly afterwards, but not before also seeing the poor man’s Jens Lekman, Dent May. Now I don’t have anything against either Fight Bite or May (in fact I quite like both) but I was a little let down by Fight Bite‘s lack of seriousness, giggling through their set like a couple of kids. Dent May’s set sounded terrific, but there was a weird disconnect between the frontman and the band (in fact they seemed almost like two different bands, with May all dead-eyed up front and the guys having fun with the music in the back). Whatever my beefs though, there really wasn’t any music throughout the entire day that was actually “bad.” Beach House finished the night off, and finished me off, leaving me almost asleep in the club. They sounded great and I think they played a couple new songs, but I am pretty exhausted and everything is getting blurry.

(Beach House @ the Rusty Spur)

(Beach House @ the Rusty Spur)

(Beach House @ the Rusty Spur)

Also: SXSW Report: Part Two | SXSW Report: Part Three